PCT #76, 1818mi: You are going the wrong way!!! (payback), getting to Crater Lake and a surprise

We slept in. More and more. I guess we knew it was only 12 miles to the store so it really didn’t matter that much. When we finally left at 7.30am “No Fucks” and “Pingeling” caught us – two hikers who we had bumped into several times in the last days. I guess it’s a good time now to talk about trail names. So it is an American thing on trails that you do change your identity from your worldly name to a trail name. And once you are “on-trail” you only use your trail name. Nobody knows your real name most of the time. So how do you get a trail name? There are multiple ways of getting one. But most of the time someone gives it to you. But based on what? Well, that can be anything. Something you did, something you messed up, a behaviour, a habbit or anything else. So what are trail names? For example Drew and Kayla are called Bambam and Pebbles (The Flintstones) because they always collect rocks to setup their tent, Sophia is the Little One because she was the youngest in the group and Kaylee is Smiles – figure that out yourselves 😉. So what do they call me? Well, I am just called Flow 😂 Why? Because when I introduced myself at the beginning with “Hi, I am Flo.” every English speaking person automatically assumed that it was Flow and not Flo. So here I am now – Flow 😎🤘🏼. And since I have mastered the skill to pee while I walk and without stopping the name also has its cause…

We walked for a bit more than an hour when we realised that we had gone the wrong way! “You are goooing the wroooong way!” Nobody told us. But we did it. We took a wrong turn at a junction and hiked down for 2 miles and lost about 600ft before we realised it. So all the way back up again. 4 extra miles and 1.5h lost. The mosquitoes were worse but this was close to it! Well, the only thing we could do was take the pill and just walk back up. Good that the trail was nicely maintained and there were no blow-downs 🙈. Probably around 1000 fallen trees in the last 100 miles…

There was the one or other view but nothing spectacular. Maybe we were also not very receptive after the detour….

And then we entered the official boundaries of the park! Only six more miles to go!

Acter fighting 3 more miles of snow at the end we arrived at the park entrance. We did get a ride from a few nice guys from the Airforce to the store (thanks Angel & friends!). Well, and then our plan of walking up to the rim, watching the sunset and all that fell apart – I guess mostly because of the store which catered ice cream, beer, chips and all the other good stuff…

We hung out, sorted food from the food boxes, ate and did what we had to do next to ice cream and other high dense calorie food. And while we were sitting in the restaurant for lunch – guess who showed up? Pebbles & Bambam!!

ABOUT

The story of a guy who left the corporate world to explore what more is out there and just to “Do What Make Good”!
How a 3.008km hike can change a life. Reflections and thoughts about life, what is important, the love for mountains and why to leave your comfort zone.